What Is Intuitive Eating? A Beginner's Guide
- Clardoon Health
- Jun 23
- 4 min read
Have you ever found yourself stressing over every meal, wondering if you’re eating the "right" food or enough of it? Maybe you've spent years bouncing from one diet to another, only to end up feeling frustrated, exhausted, and disconnected from your body. If that sounds familiar, you're not alone — and it might be time to discover a different approach to food: intuitive eating.
What is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach that encourages eating based on internal hunger and fullness cues, rather than external diet rules or emotional triggers. In simple terms, it means trusting your body to tell you when, what, and how much to eat — without guilt or restriction.
We are all born with the ability to eat intuitively. Babies cry when they’re hungry and stop eating when they’re full. But over time, diet culture, food rules, and emotional eating habits often disrupt this natural connection. The good news? With the right guidance, it's possible to reconnect with your body and eat intuitively again.
The Foundations of Intuitive Eating
Rachael Hartley, RD, LD, a certified intuitive eating counsellor, describes intuitive eating as a way to move away from external food rules and reconnect with internal signals like hunger, fullness, and satisfaction.
It is built around 10 core principles, designed to help you form a healthier relationship with food, body image, and movement:
Reject the Diet Mentality
Let go of dieting myths and quick-fix promises. Diets often offer false hope and create a cycle of guilt and shame when they fail to deliver long-term results.
Honour Your Hunger
Hunger is a biological signal, not something to be ignored. By responding to early signs of hunger, you can rebuild trust with your body and avoid extreme cravings or overeating.
Make Peace with Food
Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. When certain foods are labelled "off-limits," it can lead to intense cravings and bingeing. All foods can fit into a balanced diet.
Challenge the Food Police
Silence the inner critic that judges your food choices as "good" or "bad." Breaking free from these harmful thoughts is key to intuitive eating.
Respect Your FullnessPay attention to your body’s signals that you're comfortably full. Eating slowly and mindfully helps you notice when you've had enough.
Discover the Satisfaction FactorEating should be a pleasurable experience. When you truly enjoy what you eat, you're more likely to feel satisfied and avoid overeating.
Honour Your Feelings Without Using FoodLearn to cope with emotions like stress, boredom, or sadness in ways that don’t involve food. Emotional eating doesn’t solve the problem — and often leads to more distress.
Respect Your BodyAccept that bodies come in all shapes and sizes. Being critical of your natural body type only fuels the diet mentality and makes body respect more difficult.
Exercise – Feel the DifferenceFocus on how movement makes you feel, rather than how many calories you burn. Enjoying physical activity for its own sake improves health and boosts mood.
Honour Your Health – Gentle NutritionChoose foods that nourish your body while still allowing for flexibility and enjoyment. It's not about perfection — it's about consistent, balanced choices over time.
The Origins of Intuitive Eating
The concept of intuitive eating was first introduced by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in their 1995 book Intuitive Eating. Their work, which has been updated several times, teaches readers how to break free from chronic dieting and rebuild a positive relationship with food, mind, and body.
According to Tribole and Resch, diet culture has made it harder for people to trust their natural hunger and fullness signals. Intuitive eating empowers you to reconnect with those instincts and find freedom from food rules.
Is Intuitive Eating the Same as Mindful Eating?
While the two are related, intuitive eating and mindful eating are not identical. Mindful eating — paying attention to your eating experience with full awareness — is a practice that complements intuitive eating. However, intuitive eating is a broader philosophy that also addresses emotional eating, diet mentality, and body respect.
Is Intuitive Eating for Weight Loss?
Intuitive eating is not intended as a weight loss strategy. In fact, focusing on weight loss can interfere with the process. The goal is to improve your relationship with food and your body, which may lead to weight changes — but weight loss is not the priority.
According to Hartley, intuitive eating allows your body to naturally settle at its healthy set-point weight, whether that means gaining, losing, or maintaining weight.
Benefits of Intuitive Eating
Research has shown that intuitive eating can offer many physical and emotional health benefits, including:
Improved cholesterol levels
Lower rates of emotional and disordered eating
Better body image and higher self-esteem
Reduced stress
Enhanced metabolism
Greater overall life satisfaction
In a review of 24 studies on intuitive eating in adult women, researchers found it consistently led to less disordered eating, a more positive body image, and improved emotional wellbeing. Another study published in Eating Behaviors found that intuitive eaters reported higher body appreciation and lower rates of body image concerns compared to those following restrictive diets.
A Final Word
Intuitive eating offers a refreshing alternative to restrictive diets and the exhausting cycle of guilt around food. By listening to your body and treating it with kindness and respect, you can heal your relationship with food — and yourself.
Ready to start your journey towards a healthier, happier you?
Book a free consultation with a certified health coach today and learn how intuitive eating can fit into your lifestyle. Let’s rebuild your trust in your body — one step at a time.
References:
Leal, D. (2021, January 12). What is intuitive eating?. Verywell Fit.
Bruce, L. J., & Ricciardelli, L. A. (2016). A systematic review of the psychosocial correlates of intuitive eating among adult women. Appetite, 96, 454–472.
Linardon, J., & Mitchell, S. (2017). Rigid dietary control, flexible dietary control, and intuitive eating: Evidence for their differential relationship to disordered eating and body image concerns. Eating Behaviors, 26, 16–22.
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